Voting extended in PNG provinces

4 Jul 2012, 11:22 am   -   Source: AAP
Share This
0 
+ Comment
1
There has been widespread public frustration because some voters were not named on the roll and others were listed in neighbouring villages or wards. (File: AAP)

There has been widespread public frustration because some voters were not named on the roll and others were listed in neighbouring villages or wards. (File: AAP)

PNG's electoral commission has extended the voting schedule in a number of provinces because of bad weather and confusion about the voter roll.

RELATED

Papua New Guinea's electoral commission is reworking its logistics on a daily basis to cope with confusion about the voter roll and poor weather.

Electoral commissioner Andrew Trawen says much of the polling is expected to be completed on time on July 6, but voting will be extended in some areas.

"Due to delays with the start of polling and bad weather in some areas, helicopter schedules have been reworked on a daily basis to meet the transportation requirements for polling teams," Mr Trawen said.

"Some polling teams have chosen to walk sections of their routes rather than take air transport, but arrangements have been made to collect ballot boxes for return to counting centres."

Voting in 11 of PNG's 22 provinces has finished.

There has been widespread public frustration because some voters were not named on the roll and others were listed in neighbouring villages or wards.

In Madang province, where a cargo cult has allegedly killed seven people in recent months, 78 out of 175 teams have completed polling.

Police said the activities of the cult, which came to light on Monday, would delay polling in the remote Bogia region until extra police could be brought in.

Voting was also still under way in East Sepik province, home to four-time prime minister Sir Michael Somare.

Voting in parts of Gulf province could need to be extended while electoral officials made their way through rugged terrain.

Voting in Western Province was expected to continue until July 11.

Voting in the Bougainville atolls would continue until July 9.

Polling in Bougainville proper ended on July 3.

Chimbu province would begin voting on Friday and a date has yet to be set for polling in Eastern Highlands province.

Voting in the Southern Highlands and Hela provinces ended last week and counting has begun.

Counting in Port Moresby for the National Capital district was expected to start on Wednesday night after being delayed by a labour dispute.

  • Follow us: 
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Youtube

Your Comments

Headmaster Brown River Comm School

Jim Pokana - from Port Moresby, 11 months ago

As usual Png will prove the Austrilian critics wrong. Autralia do not count your chick before the eggs hatched. Mangi Png

Join the Discussion

Name
City / Suburb E.g. Artarmon, Sydney
Title
Comment
You have characters remaining.
Validation
What's this?
This is a captcha-picture. It is used to prevent mass-access by robots.
All submitted comments become the property of SBS. They are moderated, so we reserve the right to edit comments and remove HTML tags. Not all submitted comments will be published. Publication does not mean we endorse the opinions expressed. Please read our terms and conditions for more information.